Voice review of privacy policy in a mobile environment

ABSTRACT

A wireless mobile station transmits a request to a Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) Web site for an XML version of the site&#39;s privacy policy. If the mobile station&#39;s user preferences are set to audio, the mobile station transmits a request to the Web site for the natural language version of the privacy policy in audio format. The Web site responds with the audio version of the privacy policy.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

With the rapidly increasing use of the Internet, Internet privacy is ofincreasing concern. Various owners of World Wide Web (Web) sites havedifferent policies regarding the collection and use of an individual'sprivate information. For example, one Internet merchant may share anindividual's address, telephone number, and other personal informationwithout asking the individual. Another Internet merchant may not sellany of the individual's personal information without asking.

Mobile data privacy will be a growing concern in the future as well. TheFCC is requiring future mobile devices to be able to determine theirgeographic locations. This may be an item that the user does not wish toshare with others.

A Web consortium recognized the importance of Internet privacy andgenerated a protocol for Internet products such as Internet browsers.The protocol provides Internet related companies with guidelines forprivacy issues. The protocol is referred to in the art as Platform forPrivacy Preferences or P3P.

P3P enables Web sites to specify their personal data use and disclosurepractices and enables Web users to specify their expectations concerningpersonal data disclosure practices. Additionally, P3P provides softwareuser agents with the ability to undertake negotiation, on behalf of theparties, in order to reach an agreement concerning the exchange of databetween the parties. In other words, P3P provides a means wherebyindividuals can have sufficient information that he or she can make aninformed decision regarding whether to permit use of their personal dataor decline further use of that data. Furthermore, that decision can bedelegated to the software user agent that is acting on behalf of theindividual.

After reviewing the privacy policy of a Web site owner, the individualcan accept or reject that policy based on his or her own preferencesabout sharing personally identifiable information with the Web site.This process may be automated by the Web site sending an extensiblemark-up language (XML) file that asserts the policy of that particularWeb site and is matched with the privacy preferences configured in thebrowser or other software product. This can be accomplished usingcapabilities that are well known in the art such as A P3P PreferencesExchange Language (APPEL).

Using this rules-based language, a user can express his or herpreferences in a set of preference-rules called a ruleset. The rulesetis then used by a software agent to make automated or semi-automateddecisions regarding the acceptability of machine-readable privacypolicies from P3P enabled Web sites.

If the individual prefers to review the policy manually, they mustrequest a download of the policy [via the P3P software agent orbrowser]. Typically, privacy policies are long and detailed and mayconsist of multiple paragraphs in different fonts.

A wireless mobile station (e.g., personal digital assistant, mobiletelephone, data handset) user who is accessing a Web site is limited inreviewing a privacy policy manually. A policy might be difficult to readon a mobile device with a small screen. There is a resulting need for away to review privacy policies on mobile devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a wireless device in accordance with thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a network of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a basic browsing mode process for retrieval of a P3Pdocument.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of a basic process used during a non-browsingmode.

FIG. 5 shows a call flow diagram of one embodiment of a privacy policyreview process of the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a call flow diagram of a text-to-audio Web servicesembodiment of a privacy policy review process of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a call flow of a multi-modal interface embodiment of aprivacy policy review process of the present invention.

FIG. 8 shows a call flow of a trusted WAP enhancing proxy embodiment ofa privacy policy review process of the processes of the presentinvention.

FIG. 9 shows a call flow of a voice browsing Web service embodiment of aprivacy policy review process of the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a wireless device display in accordance withthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention provides an architecture that combinestechnologies such as Wireless Access Protocol (WAP), P3P, voice XML(VXML), and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) to enable a review ofan Internet site's natural language (e.g., English, French) privacypolicy via an aural interface. In the preferred embodiment, this isaccomplished when accessing the Internet with a mobile station.

The WAP, VXML, and SOAP protocols discussed herein are well known in theart. Further disclosure regarding these protocols can be found on theInternet at “www.wapforum.org”, www.w3.org, and“www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/1/11/19/UsageScenarios”.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a typical wireless device (100) ormobile station. The device (100) is comprised of a microphone (105) forconverting a voice signal to an electrical signal for transmission bythe transmitter (103) and radiated over the antenna (109). Signalsreceived by the antenna (109) are received and demodulated by thereceiver (104) before being converted to an aural signal by the speaker(108).

The transmitter (103) and receiver (104) blocks represent the circuitryrequired for analog-to-digital conversion, digital-to-analog conversion,modulating, demodulating, and any other task required by the airinterface standard (e.g., CDMA, TDMA, GSM) for which the wireless deviceis designed. The present invention is not limited to any one airinterface standard.

The device user inputs information and operates the device by the keypad(107). The keypad (107) can be used to input dual-tone multi-frequency(DTMF) responses. The display (106) shows the user what was input on thekeypad (107) as well as information that was received by the receiver(104).

A processor (102) that is coupled to memory (101) controls the wirelessdevice (100). The processor scans the keypad (107) for inputs, displaysappropriate data on the display (106), and controls the transmission andreception of data.

The processor (102) is also responsible for operating any processes usedby the device. In the preferred embodiment, the processor runs a Webbrowser-type process, referred to as the user agent, that communicatesdata over the Internet. The P3P-enabled Web user agent is responsiblefor interacting with the World Wide Web and Internet such as sending andretrieving e-mails, accessing and rendering Web content, and sendinginformation to a Web site.

The user agent is a smaller version of the Web browser programs writtenfor personal computers. These include programs such as MICROSOFTINTERNET EXPLORER and NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR. The user agent for theWAP-capable device is required to be smaller in size in order to fit inthe memory of the device. The user agent must also download and renderWeb content equivalents (such as decks and cards) for a substantiallysmaller screen on the device than that used in a typical personalcomputer. The user agent is well known in the art and is not discussedfurther herein.

The P3P-enabled user agent process of the present invention is alsoresponsible for enabling the end user to enter privacy policypreferences and compare these preferences with the privacy policy of aparticular Web site. As described subsequently, the comparison maytrigger a notification to the user that the full privacy policy shouldbe reviewed.

While the preferred embodiment of the present invention is described asusing wireless device (100) of FIG. 1, other types of wirelesscommunication devices also operate effectively with the process of thepresent invention. Alternate embodiments include a personal digitalassistants (PDA) and cellular telephones. In one such embodiment, thewireless device is WAP-enabled.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a network of the presentinvention. The network is illustrated as being comprised of WAPcomponents that interact with a WAP-capable wireless device. The presentinvention, however, is not limited to WAP technology. The network ofFIG. 2 is for illustration purposes only since a WAP-enabled wirelessdevice in a WAP network is only one embodiment of the privacy policyreview process of the present invention.

The network of FIG. 2 is comprised of the wireless device (100) that isillustrated in FIG. 1. The wireless device (100) communicates with thewireless network (205). In the preferred embodiment, the wirelessnetwork is a cellular network.

As is well known in the art, the wireless network (205) is comprised ofa large number of fixed antennas coupled to low power transmitters. Eachantenna radiates into a segmented 360-degree area. The number ofsegments depends on the number of directional antennas employed.Examples of such networks are the AMPS cellular network, the GSMcellular network, and the CDMA PCS networks. The wireless network of thepresent invention is well known in the art and its operation is notdiscussed further.

The present invention assumes that the wireless device is capable ofdata sessions and the networks can support such technologies. Oneexample is a GPRS class B device. Another embodiment includes an all IPnetwork that can also support voice over IP.

Alternate embodiments of the present invention use other forms ofwireless communication networks besides cellular or PCS. For example, aseries of omni-directional antennas located in a geographical area andcommunicating with wireless devices would perform substantially the samecommunication function as the cellular system of the preferredembodiment.

Referring again to FIG. 2, the wireless network (205) allows thewireless device (100) to communicate with a WAP Proxy (201). As is wellknown in the art, a proxy is an intermediary program that acts as both aserver and a client for the purpose of making requests on behalf ofother clients, such as the wireless device (100) in the presentembodiment. The proxy typically resides between clients and servers thatmay have no means of direct communication (e.g., across a firewall).Requests are either serviced by the proxy program or passed on, withpossible translation, to other servers. The WAP gateway function of theWAP proxy enables protocol conversion such as from WAP WSP to HTTP andvice versa.

In the present embodiment, the WAP Proxy (201) translates the WSP orW-HTTP requests from the wireless device (100) to the protocol used bythe World Wide Web. This allows the wireless device (100) to submitrequests for information to the supporting Web servers (303). The WAPProxy (201) may also encode as necessary the responses from the Webservers (203) into the compact binary format understood by the wirelessdevice (100).

In the embodiment of FIG. 2, WAP-capable devices access Web servers thatcommunicate using HTTP in order to render content that is marked upusing XHTML, XHTML mobile profile, or Wireless Mark-up Language (WML) tothe devices. WML is an application of XML. WML is required due to thereduced capabilities of the WAP capable wireless devices as well as theconstraints imposed by the low bandwidth wireless networks as comparedto a personal computer with substantially more memory and processingpower and accessing the Internet over higher speed connections.

Alternate embodiments are not constrained to WML. For example, futureembodiments of WAP may be XHTML-based and not use WML or WMLScript maybe replaced by some form of ECMAScript.

If the Web servers (203) provide WAP content, the WAP Proxy (201)retrieves it directly from the Web server (203). However, if the Webservers (203) provide Web content (such as HTML), the proxy (201) maytranslate the Web content into the WAP content. For example, the WAPproxy (201) could translate HTML into WML. The wireless device (100)then accesses the Web content from the WAP Proxy (201).

The Web server (203) stores the natural language privacy policy that isaccessed by both wireless devices and typical personal computers overthe Internet. For purposes of clarity, only one Web server (203) isshown in FIG. 3. In reality, depending on the information required bythe wireless device (100), multiple Web servers might be needed. EachWeb server may reside at a different site and be operated by a differentcompany. While the preferred embodiment illustrates the WAP Proxy (201)and Web server (203) as being separate entities, alternate embodimentsinclude a WAP gateway function as part of the Web origin server servingthe content.

A voice XML (VXML) gateway/proxy (207) may be included in the network.The VXML proxy (207) has a telephone number that the user can call forpurposes of accessing and reviewing the privacy policy. In such anembodiment, the WAP portions of the network are not required since theVXML gateway (207) provides the interface to the Web server with the P3Ppolicy (200) and the supporting servers (203).

The operation of the processes of the present invention will beillustrated with reference to the signal flow diagrams and flowcharts ofFIGS. 38. These processes represent two possible scenarios: a browsingmode and a non-browsing mode.

In the browsing mode, the user wishes to access a Web site and retrievea Web page and content or application. The user may or may not havevisited the site previously. The site is P3P-enabled as is the useragent, as discussed above.

The user has set the preferences in his P3P user agent, such as throughthe APPEL rules, regarding conditions when he/she should be notifiedabout the site's privacy policies. Automatic retrieval and processing ofthe XML policy then takes place. When the condition is triggered, theP3P user agent retrieves the natural language version of the privacypolicy either automatically or at the explicit request of the user.

If the user agent is operating in the browsing mode, a basic retrievaloperation takes place prior to the processes of the present invention.FIG. 3 illustrates the basic browsing process for retrieval of the P3Ppolicy.

The process starts with the P3P-enabled user agent requesting a page(e.g., coolpage) from the P3P-enabled Web site. This may be accomplishedwith an HTTP Get command (301) such as “Get coolpage.html”.

The Web site responds with the P3P policy reference file (302). The useragent then requests the XML version of the policy from the Web site(303) with another Get command. The Web site then responds with the XMLpolicy (304).

The user agent then processes the policy and may need to retrieve thenatural language version based on the preferences or a user action(e.g., key depression, voice command). If so, the user agent requeststhe natural language version of the policy by issuing a HTTP commandsuch as “Get Natural Language Policy <discuri>”(311). As is well knownin the art, the “discuri” parameter is the Universal Resource Locator(URL) at which the natural language policy resides. The Web siteresponds with the natural language version of the policy to the useragent (312).

In the non-browsing mode, the user is still connected and on-line but isnot actively visiting the Website. However, he or she is carrying out anaction such as bookmarking the site or programming the individualprivacy settings for frequency accessed sites. In such an embodiment,the user is interacting with the P3P user agent without actively seekingcontent from the site. This scenario assumes that the P3P policyreference file is located and available at a well-known location on theprovider's Web site.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of the basic process required during thenon-browsing mode. This process starts when the user invokes the P3Puser agent, a configuration/personalization application, bookmarks, orother profile preferences (step 401).

The user then enters the Web site's URL or selects it from the bookmarkmenu that indicates a need to review the natural language policy (step405). The P3P user agent then retrieves the P3P reference file from thelocation and possibly one or more policies from that site (step 410).The user agent then determines the discuri parameter and retrieves theXML policy on behalf of the user (step 415).

The natural language policy is then presented to the user to allow theuser to review it and decide whether it is acceptable (step 420). TheP3P user agent stores this choice for future reference in the form of adatabase or APPEL rules (step 425).

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of a natural language privacy policyreview process of the present invention. This embodiment assumes thatthe user is accessing the Web site via a wireless device that supportsMultimedia Internet Mail Extension (MIME) types such as “wav”, “aiff”,or “au” types that are well known in the art. This embodiment alsoassumes that the user has set his preferences to indicate that heprefers to listen to the policy as opposed to reading it. Thus, anexample of an APPEL rule might be “pref=audio”. Alternately, thepreference may be set as part of a generic user profile that may or maynot be associated with APPEL.

Preferably, the wireless device is accessing the Internet via a highbandwidth network that can support audio downloads with reasonablequality of service (QoS). An example of such a network is 2.5 and 3GCDMA networks.

The process begins after the P3P user agent has processed the XMLversion of the privacy policy. The user agent has thus decided, based onuser preferences or user action, that the natural language policy isrequired.

Referring to FIG. 5, the user agent transmits a request for the naturallanguage policy (501) to the P3P enabled Web site. Such a command mighttake the form of “HTTP Get Natural Language Policy <discuri>,<pref=audio>”. As discussed above, the discuri parameter will be the URLat which the policy is located.

Since the preference has been set to audio, the Web site resolves thediscuri to retrieve the audio version of the natural language policy(502). The Web site then responds to the Get command with the audioformat of the policy (503). This format, in one embodiment, is in theMIME .au, .wav, or aiff format. Such a response might appear as “HTTPGet Response <Natural Language Version of the Policy in audio format>”.

Once the wireless device's user agent has received the audio file, it isplayed for the user through the wireless device's audio system. The useris then provided an opportunity to respond. The user can respond byentering a response on the keypad of the wireless device, moving acursor over a response on the display and depressing an enter key, or bya voice response to the wireless device that is then interpreted.

If the user agrees with the privacy policy and responds with a requestto retrieve the Web content, a request is sent to the Web site for thedesired content (511) (presuming the browsing mode). Such a requestmight be in the form of “HTTP Get coolpage.html” where “coolpage” is thedesired Web page.

The user might also have the option of blocking access to personalinformation if he disagrees with the privacy policy. Additionally, theuser might agree to allow a limited amount of personal information to bedisclosed to the Web site, the details of which would likely have beenpre-set.

The embodiment of FIG. 5 operates in either the browsing or non-browsingmodes. In either mode, the Web site can return either the audio of thenatural language policy (e.g., a normal voice transmission) or an audiofile for playback by the user agent of the wireless device (e.g., a .wavfile).

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of a process for reviewing a privacypolicy using Web services for text-to-audio conversion. As is well knownin the art, Web services are a collection of functions that are packagedas a single entity and published to the network for use by otherprograms. The services are open distributed systems that allow companiesand individuals to quickly and cheaply make their digital assetsavailable worldwide. More information on Web services can be found atwww.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/04/webservices orhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/enus/dnwebsrv/html/websvcs_platform.asp.

This embodiment relies on the same assumptions as the embodiment of FIG.5 (i.e., high bandwidth connection, preference set to audio). However,in this embodiment, the Web site does not have an audio version of thepolicy. In this case, the Web server with the policy supports Webservices protocols such as SOAP using XML over HTTP and WSDL that arewell known in the art. It can query a Web services broker forinformation regarding a service provider that offers a Web service toconvert the policy text file into an audio format.

The Web services broker typically hosts a registry with description ofbusiness and their services. This embodiment provides support forpublishing and locating Web services such as the audio transcodingservice (more information can be found at www.uddi.org). Thus the audiotranscoding Web service provider will register with the service brokerand published availability of its Web service. While the preferredembodiment of the present invention uses an audio transcoding server,other types of data conversions besides transcoding can be implemented.

Referring to FIG. 6, the user agent has processed the XML policy andneeds to retrieve the natural language policy based on the userpreferences or user action. The user agent sends a request to theP3P-enabled Web site (601). This command may take the form of “HTTP GetNatural Language Policy <discuri>, <pref=audio>”.

The service requester (P3P Web site) then tries to find Web services forthe text to audio conversion (605). This is request for the find serviceis sent to the Web services registry. This find process for a suitableWeb service may occur at any time and even does not have to occur inreal time. The Web services registry responds with the location to theWeb site (610).

The service requester of the embodiment of FIG. 6 binds with the Webservice by protocols such as SOAP (615). Depending on the Web servicedescription, the discuri or the whole text of the natural languagepolicy is communicated to the Web service. If the discuri is sent, thepolicy is first retrieved before the transformation takes place. In thiscase, no information about the user is sent to the Web service. Theaudio transcoding Web service implements the text-to-speech conversionprocess that returns an audio file (616).

The transformed content is returned to the service requester in a Bindresponse (620). Since this content is not in the XML format, additionalpackaging of the message using MIME may be necessary in the SOAPresponse.

The Web site sends the audio version of the natural language policy tothe user agent (625). This may be done in a Get response command such as“Get Response <audio version of Natural Language Policy>”. The useragent then plays the policy for the user and waits for a response fromthe user. This display and response might take the form of the displayof FIG. 6 or some other type of display and response. In this case, theuser agent responds with an “HTTP Get coolpage.html” command (630) tothe Web site in order to retrieve the Web content “coolpage”.

FIG. 7 illustrates a multi-modal interface process of the presentinvention. In this embodiment, the user is accessing the Web site via amulti-modal wireless device. In this instance, multi-modal refers to theuser agent supporting voice as well as data simultaneously for input andoutput on a user interface The P3P preferences of this embodiment areset to multi-modal (i.e., <pref=multimodal>).

The process begins after the user agent has processed the XML version ofthe policy. Based on user preferences or user action, the naturallanguage version is required.

The user agent transmits a request to the P3P-enabled Web site for thenatural language policy (701). This could be in the form of a Getcommand such as “HTTP Get Natural Language Policy <discuri>,<pref=multimodal>”.

The Web site server is able to parse the user preference that indicatesreview of the natural language policy by visual as well as audiointerface. The server resolves the discuri parameter in order torespond. Since the preferences are set to multi-modal, the Web site willrespond with content that leverages visual as well as audio interfaces.This response (702) may be in the form of a Get response such as “GetResponse <presentation of Natural Language Version of the Policy invisual +aural formats>”. In one embodiment, the response involvesXML-based technologies.

The user is now able to listen as well as read the policy and provide aresponse. The response may be, as indicated in the previous embodiments,a voice or text entry. If the user has responded that she agrees withthe policy, the desired content from the Web site is retrieved with acommand such as “HTTP Get coolpage.html”(711).

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of the processes of the presentinvention in which a trusted WAP enhancing proxy is used as both a P3Puser agent and a VXML user agent. The trusted WAP-enabled proxy is aproxy with which the user agent has a relationship such as the user'sAPPEL preferences are stored on the WAP proxy and the APPEL evaluatorfunction is implemented in the proxy.

In this embodiment, the user is accessing the Web site via a wirelessdevice that has limited processing capabilities such as a WAP-enabledwireless device. The wireless device has a WAP browser and the networkinfrastructure is comprised of a WAP-compatible architecture.

Additionally, the WAP proxy of the embodiment of FIG. 8 acts as a voiceXML (VXML) gateway that supports functions such as the ability totraverse VXML Web pages and carrying out text-to-speech conversion. TheWAP proxy, acting as a VXML gateway, also performs speech and/or DTMFrecognition. The wireless mobile station accesses the VXML capabilitiesvia a public switched telephone network (PSTN) voice call.

In this embodiment, the WAP proxy supports specialized transcodingfunctions that enable conversion of the human readable policy obtainedfrom the Web server into VXML-compatible format. Alternately, the WAPproxy may convey user preferences for review of the policy in VXMLformat to the origin server that may itself be capable of rendering thepolicy in such a format.

Referring to FIG. 8, the process begins with the user agent transmittinga command to the WAP proxy/VXML gateway for a Web page (801). Thiscommand may take the form of “HTTP Get coolpage.wml”.

The P3P user agent at the WAP proxy processes the XML policy andretrieves the natural language policy based on user preferences or useraction (802). The natural language policy is then retrieved from theP3P-enabled Web site (803) that stores the policy. This command may takethe form of “HTTP Get Natural Language Policy <discuri>”.

The Web site with the policy then responds to the WAP proxy with thenatural language policy (804). This response may take the form of “GetResponse <natural language version of the policy>”.

The WAP proxy/VXML gateway then transforms the natural language policyto VXML and generates a user policy identification number. The userpolicy ID is transmitted back to the user agent in the wireless device(806). The policy ID associates a particular natural language policywith a certain user since there may be multiple users simultaneouslyrequiring transformed natural language policies.

The process does not require text-to-speech conversion first and thengenerate the policy ID. It could simply generate the policy ID andperform the text-to-speech transformation in real time.

The use agent then invokes a Wireless Telephony Application Interface(WTAI)Make Call function (i.e., a WMLScript public library function) toset up a voice call between the wireless device and the WAP proxy/VXMLuser agent. This call may be set up automatically without userintervention or the user agent may display a prompt that lets the userrespond whether they want the call set up and also displays the userpolicy ID (807).

Once the PSTN call is set up (808) with the WAP proxy/VXML gateway, theuser policy ID is entered. This policy ID is used to associate the userwith the policy that he has chosen to hear. The user then listens to thepolicy over the PSTN voice call. The user can respond (809) with theirdecision to the policy via speech entry or DTMF tones. The userpreferences in the P3P user agent on the WAP proxy are then updatedaccordingly (810). The WAP session resumes after the voice call isterminated (815). If the policy was acceptable, the WAP proxy cangenerate the request for content to the Web site on behalf of the user(820). This command may take the form of “HTTP Get coolpage.html”.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention where a WAPproxy invokes the voice browsing Web service. In this embodiment, theuser is accessing the Web site with a wireless device that has limitedprocessing capabilities, such as a WAP-enabled device. The networkinfrastructure is comprised of a WAP-compatible architecture.

In this embodiment, the P3P user agent functionality is implemented inthe WAP/enhancing proxy in which the wireless device user agent has atrusted relationship. Such a relationship indicates that the wirelessdevice user agent stores its APPEL preferences on the WAP proxy and theAPPEL evaluator function is implemented in the proxy.

The P3P user agent of this embodiment manages the privacy user interfacewith the wireless device. In other words, the P3P user agent may be aWML or XHTML application downloadable from a proxy that, in thisembodiment, is a Wireless Telephony Application (WTA) server. The WTAserver is a special kind of origin server that communicates with a WAPwireless device directly. The WTA server provides WAP access to featuresof the wireless network provider's telecommunications infrastructure.For example, the network provider may provide storage of telephonenumbers and addresses for the telephone user. The user can then accessthese numbers through the WA server using the wireless device's useragent.

Since the user in the embodiment of FIG. 9 has expressed a preference toreview the policy by listening to it and the P3P Web site has thecapability of providing the policy in visual form, the enhancing proxycommunicates with the Web service provider to provide the necessaryfunction for the user. SOAP or some other messaging protocol is used forcommunication between the proxy and the Web service. Depending on theWeb services provided, either the discuri or the natural language policyis communicated to the Web service. If the discuri is transmitted, thepolicy is retrieved by the Web service. If the policy is sent as a wholeto the Web service, the proxy should retrieve the same before invokingthe Web service.

In this embodiment, the Web service supports functions such as theability to perform text-to-speech conversion and/or speech recognition,generate VXML compatible Web pages, and/or traverse them. The interfacefor this embodiment is provided by a call generated over the PSTN orvoice over IP (VoIP) call.

Referring to FIG. 9, the process begins with the wireless device's useragent requesting Web content with a command such as “Getcoolpage.wml”(901). This command is transmitted to the WAP proxy (P3Puser agent).

The P3P user agent in the WAP proxy then processes the XML policy and,based on user preferences or user action, recognizes that the naturallanguage policy is to be provided to the user in audio format. The WAPproxy user agent then binds with the VXML Web service (911). This can beaccomplished with a command such as “Bind Web Service <usrpolicy_id>,<policyURI>”. The policyURI is essentially the discuri parameteridentified by the Web site. In another embodiment, the natural languagepolicy could be retrieved and sent in place of the policy URL that theWeb service has to retrieve from the Web site.

The WAP proxy user agent also responds to the wireless device's useragent with the user policy ID number (902). This can be accomplished bythe command “Get Response <usrpolicy_id=123XY45>”. As in the previousembodiment, the wireless device's user agent then either automaticallyinitiates a call to the VXML Web Services or prompts the user toinitiate the call (915).

The VXML retrieves the policy from the P3P-enabled Web site if necessary(921). This may be accomplished with a command such as “HTTP Get<policy_id>”. The Web site then responds with the natural languagepolicy in a response such as “Get Response <Natural LanguagePolicy>”(922).

The VXML Web service transcodes the natural language policy to VXML(925). The wireless device's user agent then invokes a WTAI Call withthe VXML Web Services (931).

With the voice call in progress to the VXML server, the user can thenexpress her opinion by DTMF tones or by speech in order to accept orrefuse the policy (935). The VXML Web service collects the user's choiceregarding the policy (936). The voice call may be terminated (937).

The VXML Web service responds to the WAP proxy/P3P user agent with aBind response (940). This response may take the form of “Bind Response<usrpolicy_id>, <userchoice>” where the user policy ID and the user'sresponse are transmitted back to the WAP proxy. The WAP proxy thenupdates the user privacy policy preferences with persistent informationregarding the Web site (945).

The WAP session may then resume (950) between the wireless device's useragent and the WAP proxy. The process for resuming a WAP session is wellknown in the art. The WAP proxy transmits the request (955) for the Webcontent to the Web site storing the content. This request may take theform of “HTTP Get coolpage.wml”. The user can then resume her browsing(960).

An example of a wireless device's display in accordance with theprocesses of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 10. Thedisplay might initially show the status of the process (1000) such as“Retrieving Policy”, “Playing Policy”, and “Done”. The display mightalso have response buttons (1001 1003) that can be highlighted by theuser with the cursor control button on the keypad. These responses, inone embodiment, are “block”(1001), “limit” (1002), and “request”(1003).Once the desired response has been highlighted or selected, the enterkey on the keypad is depressed to indicated the user's choice. Thedisplay might also indicate when it is waiting for a voice response bythe user.

The display of FIG. 10 is for purposes of illustration only. The presentinvention is not limited to any one display or type of response.

In summary, the present invention provides a wireless mobile station'suser with the ability to review natural language versions of an Internetsite's privacy policy, wherein the review is accomplished by allowingthe user to review the policy via an aural means. Thus, the limiteddisplay capabilities of wireless devices will not obstruct the user'sability to review long, natural language pages.

1. A method for aural review of a privacy policy in a wireless environment, the wireless environment comprising a mobile station having at least one user preference and a Web site, the method comprising the steps of: retrieving a first version of the privacy policy comprising a network location; retrieving a natural language version of the privacy policy from the network location based on the first version of the privacy policy and the at least one user preference; and presenting an audio representation of the natural language version.
 2. The method of claim 1 and further including the step of requesting an input in response to the natural language version of the privacy policy.
 3. The method of claim 2 and further including the steps of receiving a response to request Internet content.
 4. The method of claim 2 wherein the input is an aural response.
 5. The method of claim 2 wherein the input is a text response.
 6. The method of claim 2 wherein the input is a dual-tone multi-frequency tone.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the first version of the privacy policy is an extensible mark-up language version.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of retrieving the natural language version comprises retrieving a file in an audio format.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein the audio format is a Multimedia Internet Mail Extension format.
 10. The method of claim 1 wherein the network location is a universal resource locator that is presented in the first version as a discuri parameter.
 11. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of retrieving the natural language version comprises retrieving an audio representation of the natural language version.
 12. A method for aural review of a privacy policy in a wireless environment, the wireless environment comprising a mobile station having at least one user preference, a Platform for Privacy Preferences-enabled Web site, a Web service registry, and an audio conversion server, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a request for a first version of the privacy policy, comprising a network location, from the mobile station; determining a network location for the audio conversion server to transform the first version of the privacy policy to a natural language version of the privacy policy by converting text to an audio format based on the at least one user preference; and transmitting the natural language version of the privacy policy in the audio format to the mobile station for presentation.
 13. The method of claim 12 wherein the first version of the privacy policy is an extensible mark-up language version.
 14. The method of claim 12 wherein the step of determining the network location for the audio conversion server comprises accessing the Web service registry for the network location for the audio conversion server having a text-to-audio conversion service.
 15. The method of claim 12 and further including the step of receiving a request for Internet content in response to the natural language version of the privacy policy in the audio format.
 16. A method for aural review of a privacy policy in a wireless environment, the wireless environment comprising a mobile station having at least one user preference and a Platform for Privacy Preferences-enabled Web site, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a request for a natural language version of a privacy policy, the request comprising a network location of the privacy policy; receiving the at least one user preference; and transmitting a multi-modal format natural language version of the privacy policy based on the at least one user preference.
 17. The method of claim 16 wherein the multi-modal format comprises audio and visual material.
 18. The method of claim 16 wherein the multi-modal format is obtained by invoking a Web service.
 19. A method for aural review of a privacy policy in a wireless environment, the wireless environment comprising a mobile station having at least one user preference, a wireless access protocol-enabled (WAP) proxy, and a Web site, the method comprising the steps of: the WAP proxy receiving a request for a natural language version of the privacy policy, the request comprising a network location of the privacy policy and the user preferences; transmitting a request for a natural language version of the privacy policy to the Web site on behalf of a user based on the at least one user preference; receiving the natural language version from the Web site; transforming the natural language version to a voice extensible mark-up language (VXML) compatible format version of the privacy policy; generating an identification for the VXML format version of the privacy policy; and transmitting the identification.
 20. The method of claim 19 and further including the step of the WAP proxy receiving a call from the mobile station in response to the identification.
 21. The method of claim 20 and further including the step of responding to the privacy policy via dual-tone multi-frequency while on the call.
 22. The method of claim 20 and further including the step of responding to the privacy policy via speech while on the call.
 23. A method for aural review of a privacy policy in a wireless environment, the wireless environment comprising a mobile station having at least one user preference, a Platform for Privacy Preferences-enabled Web site, a Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) proxy, and a Voice eXtensible Mark-up Language (VXML) server, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a request for a natural language version of the privacy policy, comprising a network location, from the mobile station; generating an identification for an audio format of the natural language version of the privacy policy based on the at least one user preference; transmitting the identification to the mobile station; transmitting the identification and the network location to the VXML server; the VXML server retrieving the natural language version of the privacy policy from the network location; and the VXML server transforming the natural language version of the privacy policy to VXML format.
 24. The method of claim 23 and further including the step of receiving a response from the mobile station in response to the VXML format of the natural language version of the privacy policy.
 25. A system for aural review of a privacy policy in a wireless environment, the system comprising: a wireless network that enables a plurality of wireless, mobile stations to communicate with the system; and a Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)-enabled Web site that has the ability to receive a request, comprising a network location and at least one user preference, for a natural language version of the privacy policy, the Web site further has the ability to interpret the at least one user preference and retrieve, from the network location, the natural language version of the privacy policy in an audio format based on the at least one user preference and transmit the audio format to a requesting mobile station.
 26. The system of claim 25 wherein the network location is a Universal Resource Locator for the Internet.
 27. A system for aural review of a privacy policy in a wireless environment, the system comprising: a wireless network that enables a plurality of wireless, mobile stations to communicate with the system; an audio transcoding Web service that is capable of converting a text file of the privacy policy to an audio format; a Web service registry that stores a network locator for the audio transcoding Web service; and a Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)-enabled Web site that is capable of accessing the Web service registry to retrieve the network locator, the P3P-enabled Web site is further capable of transmitting one of either the text file of the privacy policy or a reference to the text file to the audio transcoding Web service, receiving the audio format of the privacy policy and transmitting the audio format of the privacy policy to a requesting mobile station.
 28. The system of claim 27 and further including the requesting mobile station comprising a user agent that is capable of accessing the Web service registry and transmitting the text file to the audio transcoding Web service.
 29. A system for aural review of a privacy policy in a wireless environment, the system comprising: a wireless network that enables a plurality of wireless, mobile stations to communicate with the system; a wireless access protocol (WAP) proxy that interfaces between the wireless network and the system, the WAP proxy is capable of forwarding a request from a mobile station for a natural language version of the privacy policy; a Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)-enabled Web site that stores the natural language version of the privacy policy; and a voice extensible mark-up language (VXML) server that is capable of retrieving the natural language version of the privacy policy from the P3P-enabled Web site in response to the forwarded request, the VXML server is further capable of converting the natural language version of the privacy policy into a VXML interaction format that is accessible by the mobile station via a call to the VXML server.
 30. The system of claim 29 wherein the call to the VXML server is a voice over IP call. 